Reopening the WHR from Rhyd Ddu to Beddgelert

April 7th, 2009

The WHR was reopened from Rhyd Ddu to Beddgelert on Tuesday
April 7th 2009, before the resumption of regular public services the following
day.

The "Special First Train" took invited guests from
Caernarfon to Beddgelert, hauled double-headed by NGG16 Beyer-Garratts nos.
87 and 143; the day marked no. 87's launch into passenger service, together
with new Pullman observation car no. 2100. Diesel Vale of Ffestiniog
ran south light engine earlier in the morning to check the line, which led
to the discovery of vandalism at Rhyd Ddu apparently intended to disrupt train
operations. The special departed a little late from Caernarfon and ran slower
than planned to Rhyd Ddu while the damage was rectified.

At Beddgelert, the assembled crowds witnessed speeches by Welsh
Highland Railway Construction Ltd Chairman Mike Hart, Festiniog Railway Trust
and Company Chairman Dr John Prideaux, and Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas, Presiding
Officer of the National Assembly for Wales, marking the formal reopening to
Beddgelert. The train was then packed out by local residents who had responded
to an invitation to ride the "First Passenger Train" from Beddgelert
to Rhyd Ddu and back; the place of honour in the end of the observation car
was reserved for 93-year old Beddgelert resident John Pritchard, who had travelled
on the old WHR in his youth. Invited guests took lunch at the Royal Goat Hotel
while the residents' train made its run, and later returned to Caernarfon
by the return working of the "Special First Train".

YouTube video (John Wooden, FR Co).

Public services started the next day, with trains crossing at
Rhyd Ddu or Waunfawr.

Over the Easter weekend - which was also the first weekend of public trains
to Beddgelert - trains were running with eight carriages and a bicycle wagon,
and in numerous cases ran almost full. In addition to passengers travelling
from the Caernarfon end of the line to Beddgelert, numerous campers joined trains
at Meillionen Halt to travel north.